ICM builds resilient Cloud for Honda in two year deal

Honda (UK) has signed a two-year deal with ICM to move its website into a public cloud environment. Previously hosted by another provider via a private cloud, the new platform will save the manufacturer running costs, whilst ensuring 24/7 website availability.

Mervyn Eyles, IT Director for Honda UK, explains: "Previously, our private cloud meant that we were paying a substantial sum for a dedicated resource that we were never using to capacity. Moving to a public cloud with ICM means that we can benefit from a virtual infrastructure that is quickly scalable to meet peaks in demand. We are 100 per cent behind continuing the cloud journey and moving to a public cloud gives us a more flexible and cost effective solution."

To support brand continuity, it is vital that customers can access the Honda website 24/7. The UK website will therefore be hosted on a virtual shared platform across two of ICM’s datacentres, so that if one connection fails an immediate failover ensures constant availability.

"Our website is considered one of the most critical systems for supporting our customer experience at Honda and the importance of brand continuity means that we simply cannot afford for it to be down. Working with ICM means that we have the best of both worlds – an on-demand infrastructure, backed up by their monitoring and management service to guarantee that the website is always online," concluded Eyles.

Martin O’Donnell, Managed Hosting & Cloud Services Director at ICM, said: "Honda chose ICM as they believe we are one of the few vendors that really understand how to create an effective public cloud infrastructure. As a credible vendor with a solid datacentre and resource infrastructure in place, we were able to prove our cloud credentials from the work we have done with other large brand names. The market is now evolving to one of acceptance for a public cloud approach as a secure, pay-as-you-go system that gives a business true flexibility in the resources it uses, saving both cost and boosting business efficiency."